192 THE OX TRIBE. 



ledges, in the same breath, that it can be eaten without 

 harm? 



According to Mr. Youatt's philosophy, a cow in a rabid 

 state is actually as good as a cow in a healthy state ; for 

 its milk may be drunk with impunity the family is per- 

 fectly safe who uses it for domestic purposes ; and, more- 

 over, the flesh of rabid cattle may be eaten without harm. 

 What more can be predicated of cattle in the purest 

 state of health? 



STATISTICS. 



The number of cattle in Great Britain was estimated 

 by Youatt (1838) at upwards of eight millions. 160,000 

 head of cattle are annually sold in Smithfield alone, 

 without including calves, or the dead market, i. e., the 

 carcases sent up from various parts of the country. 

 1,200,000 sheep, 36,000 pigs, and 18,000 calves, are also 

 sent to Smithfield in the course of a year. 



A tenth part of the sheep and lambs die annually of 

 disease (more than 4,000,000 perished by the rot alone in 

 the winter of 1829-30), and at least a fifteenth part of 

 the neat cattle are destroyed by inflammatory fever and 

 milk fever, red water, hoose, and diarrhoea. 



If a tithe of the sheep and lambs, and a fifteenth of 

 the neat cattle die of disease, what proportion are slaugh- 

 tered and sent to market in the earlier stages of disease ; 

 and, in fact, in all the stages antecedent to those which 

 are the immediate cause of death ? 



THE END. 



